Voldemort's Love
by Duck Life
Summary: More chapters to come. Voldemort visits his mother and discovers love. Who should feel it first but a Muggle. Please R&R!
1. Prologue

Voldemort was waiting

Voldemort was waiting. But Harry Potter did not come. Finally, Voldemort knew that the boy wouldn't come. He had known it all along. "Should we move on to the castle?" asked a teary Narcissa. But he told her no. She didn't care about the castle. She didn't want to win the war. She only wanted her son. Voldemort never understood the bond between mother and son. Until now.

ONE WEEK LATER

Rachel was smiling, though the day was gloomy and gray. She had just received a gorgeous bouquet of roses, twelve of them, all complete and breathtakingly beautiful. She had thought, "Who would send me these?" Then, she noticed the card.

To the most beautiful woman I have ever met,

Mr. Riddle 


	2. The Silvery Pool

Voldemort stepped cautiously through the thick forest

Voldemort stepped cautiously through the thick forest. None of the Death Eaters saw him leave; they were too busy concentrating on finding Potter. Voldemort told himself he was investigating; making sure that there was no way for Hogswartians to escape, but he knew he was kidding himself. Something was pulling him involuntarily around the trees, over logs, and through thick bushes, making him weave through the forest in search of something he did not know.

When he encountered a short stone pool, he knew he had found it. It was a cylindrical rock formation, about three feet off the ground, full of sparkling misty water. He looked into the water and saw his reflection, but then it became distorted and changed until it resembled that of an old, grungy woman. She smiled when she saw him. "I've been waiting for you. Tom," she said casually.

"Who are you?" Voldemort inquired. He couldn't pretend that he wasn't frightened. The woman looked surprised.

"You don't recognize me? Not at all?" Voldemort shook his head. The woman smiled. "I'm your mother."


	3. Love Will Betray

Merope Riddle smiled at her son. Voldemort stuttered. "B-but you're…you're _dead_! How can you-be here…and-" he couldn't get the words out. Merope just smiled.

"I am but a memory. I believe you've had that experience before." Voldemort nodded. His mother looked serene and peaceful, much more beautiful than she had in life. "Tom, dear," she said, "I love you, and I wish you would learn to love. It is such a _wonderful_ feeling," she peered out of the pool hopefully.

Voldemort stared at her. To love would be to betray everything he had worked for, everything he needed. He had fought to steer away from affection and feeling. As if he needed an example, here was his mother: she loved her way to betrayal and death. Love would never get anyone anywhere, he thought angrily. "I can never love!" He splashed the pool, distorting his mother's figure, then ran away into the dark wood.


	4. Hate and Love

The war was over

The war was over. Voldemort had escaped. He didn't think he would ever kill anyone ever again. To his followers, he said that blasting people away had gotten boring, and trusted them to pass the message along to the idiots at the Daily Prophet. His plan was to retire as a wealthy and spiteful old man. Bellatrix stayed in his mansion with him. One day, while he pondered things in bed, she set his breakfast down on the floor and stared at him. "When are you going to love me?" she asked incredulously.

"What?" answered Voldemort dismissively.

"I said, When are you going to love me?" Bella whispered. She was crying now.

"Never. I don't love. Now bring me my breakfast." Voldemort was moody. Bellatrix pulled out her wand and pointed it at him.

"I've loved you for thirty-one years!" she shrieked. "I thought you knew that! I thought you actually cared about me! But you know what, I give up. I'm going to go live my life. I'll see you in Hell." She stalked off. Voldemort began to wonder if love wasn't such a crazy thing after all…


	5. Flowers

It had been only four days since he had seen his mother in the water, but it seemed like an eternity to Voldemort

It had been only four days since he had seen his mother in the water, but it seemed like an eternity to Voldemort. He had stalked away angrily that day in the forest, proclaiming that love was idiotic. Biting his tongue, he glanced up at the florist. She stared at him.

So will that be roses, tulips, or both, sir?" she asked in a bored tone. He looked down at the white and red angels, then at the yellow sunshines staring at him from under a sign that read, "TULIPS". What should he choose? He laughed to himself, a week ago the decision would have been trivial and of no concern to him, but now he felt the choice would affect his entire life. "Sir?" questioned the florist expectantly.

"Tulips!" he said. They were bright and cheery, and they matched her smile…


	6. Sisters

Tessie Harrison waited patiently as the cabbie slowly pulled up in front of her sister's house. She paid him quickly and gracefully stepped out of the taxi. A tall brunette woman stood on the porch, smiling. "Rachel!" Tessie ran forward and hugged her younger sibling. Rachel led her inside the house. Tessie looked all around the room. "Why are there so many flowers…and chocolates-" She stopped. "Omigosh! You have a secret admirer!" Rachel nodded, beaming. Tessie hugged her sister again.

"Tess, he's _so _sweet. I get a different bouquet for every day of the week, roses on Monday, violets on Tuesday…and every other day I get chocolates! They all say they're from 'Mr. Riddle', I think it must be some sort of code-name. And _look _what he got me for Valentine's Day!" She gestured to a pink and white marble cherub in the corner. Tessie frowned.

"Rachel, how long has this been going on?" Tessie inquired. Rachel sighed.

"A month…and a few days…,"she answered guiltily. She was frustrated. When would Riddle reveal himself? Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Rachel ran to get it, but Tessie beat her and flung the heavy wooden door open. On the doorstep, there was a single rose, with a note attached to it. Tessie leaned down and picked it up.

"It says, 'Tomorrow –R'"


	7. Changes

Tom Riddle hurried down a worn gravelly path on one dusty August twilight. The fading sun slandered through the wet trees, casting orange shadows on the ground. Tom's heavy boots left soft imprints on the crumbling road. A breeze whistled around the branches and softly shifted his dark hair. He paused and closed his eyes, imagining the look on Rachel's face when he confronted her. He had regained all the handsomeness he had had when he was sixteen. His eyes were deep brown once more, and his skin was the shade of brown that appears as hot summers dwindle to an end and are submerged into the woody cold that is autumn. And he had a nose.

It had been a relief when he cut off his "lifelines", the arsenic-covered ropes that bounded him to half-life. He wanted nothing if he could not have her. He lived humanly, yet he felt sorrow at what he had left behind. He realized all too soon that his cruelty and hunger for power made up whom he was as a wizard. Without them, he was a mere Muggle. Yet, phrasing it this way, he felt, was discrimination against Muggles. Against people like her. Gulping, he strode on through the pale dusk. His fingers could grasp a wand, as a Muggle could grasp a kitchen spoon. A wand in his hand was just as useless. He snapped it.

Suddenly, a cloth was thrust in his mouth and a hand covered his eyes. He tried to shake his captor off, but there seemed to be more than one, at least one a wizard, as he realized when he heard _Stupefy! _Before he could ponder this, all went black, and he was thrust unwillingly into the world of vague dreams and potential wisps of thought.


	8. Betrayal

Tess slid into the back seat of the taxi. Her sister stood waving on the front porch, but Tess knew that her mind was elsewhere. Riddle hadn't come. Rachel feared that it had all been a prank. Worst of all, though she tried to hide it, Tess knew that Rachel suspected _her!_ Her own sister! Tess watched her distraught sister, standing meekly on the porch, until the cab slowly turned the corner.

Rachel remained on the patio long after Tess's cab had left. She was lost in her thoughts and memories. Riddle had become an obsession of hers. And now he had abandoned her. How many days had it been since he'd told her that he would come 'tomorrow'? Eight? Nine? Rachel tried to tell herself that it might not have been his fault. But if not, we didn't he write _maybe _tomorrow? Why did he give her so much false hope? Did Riddle ever really care? Or was it just a joke, meant for a desperate woman with a tendency to jump to conclusions. Nothing made sense. Rachel sighed and went back into the house.


	9. Skinny and Fatty

"Get your hands off me!" shouted Voldemort. "You're keeping me from something infinitely more important than your lives!" He shook with anger. He was fighting two men, one very fat and short, the other tall and skinny.

"What is it?" the fat one asked curiously. "We can use Legillimency, you know! Nothing you can hide from us!" he sang.

"Shut up," said the skinny one as he tied Voldemort's hands roughly behind his back. He grew brave.

"That's not going to hold me. I am a wizard, you know!" Voldemort shouted.

"Not any more you ain't," said the fat one.

"Shut up!" said Skinny. Voldemort sighed and allowed them to tie him to the post he was leaning against, wishing that he could have kept his promise to Rachel. He knew that he had no magic in him, and he would probably die in this place. Too soft for anyone else to hear, he whispered, "I love you."

**A/N: I stole the captors from "Have Spacesuit-Will Travel" by Robert Heinlen. My dad was reading it to me and I wanted to include them, especially Skinny. **


End file.
